this post was submitted on 09 Dec 2025
968 points (98.3% liked)
Witchy Memes
6021 readers
124 users here now
Be cool to each other. We'll welcome most occult themes, it's okay if you stray from witchcraft a bit.
No advertising. No trolling. No hate. Violaters will be removed unceremoniously.
We love art credits when possible.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
I'd understand if I get skewered for this but people who don't leave the witchcraft stuff behind when they grow up are on par with disney adults and hardcore weebs. I used to think I could gather chi to perform powerful attacks but if I still thought that, people would rightfully make fun of me.
This opinion is gender neutral but I'm always afraid to express it because it might come across as misogyny.
I think there's a difference between "these rituals and metaphors help me deal with the struggles of the world" and "yo I totally hexed him that's why he got the flu".
The former is pretty harmless. Some people meditate. Some people lift weights. Some people draw cards from a deck and reflect on how they feel about getting The Tower when they asked about their boyfriend. It's just a lens to focus your thoughts.
There is a difference for sure but meditation and exercise are not really comparable since there's proven benefits, a closer comparison would be....religion. Consulting the deck is even sillier than praying because you get an "answer" every time which probably just reinforces your preexisting belief
I’m not sure you understand witchcraft from the perspective of those that practice it. It sounds more to me like you’re talking about a caricature of witchcraft and pagan practices, rather than what most witches actually believe
Out of curiosity, if we're to dismiss the caricature you think might be at play here, what does define witchcraft? If it's just a set of mental disciplines that help someone navigate life then the term witchcraft itself seems to be somewhat grandiose.
I want to hear OPs answer too, but to chime in: what are most religions/belief systems if not mental disciplines to help people navigate life?
This thing seems to always be involved in this kind of stuff. Noted, of course, that many do that in uncool ways/with uncool impacts (reinforcing hierarchies that justify concentration of power, legitimizing harm to others, glorifying ignorance, etc.)
I have gone down the path of meditation an uncommon distance. Finding people to talk to about it is basically impossible. There is some common ground with consensual reality tho. And I try to do conversations there sometimes. It is generally frustrating. I should stop.
I mean that's the whole idea, you don't create knowledge out of nothing. But it's more than just preexisting belief, you try to grab it from collective unconscious.
Plus, card on itself doesn't tell you anything SPECIFIC. The whole point of cards and magic is to believe that this specific card has bigger meaning, thus you need to interpret it, and think about it's meaning. And thinking is useful. What conclusion you come up with depends more on the situation than the card itself.
Others have elaborated further, but I'll give an example you can probably agree with:
If you're having trouble making a decision, you can flip a coin. This is actually really useful if you don't actually let the coin make the decision. If you're disappointed with the result, you then found out you liked the other result better, and you should do that instead. There's no magic. It's just a way to help ourselves gain insight into what we believed but we're having trouble realizing.
I love to collect herbs. But I hate to tell people about that because just after then, I ccan discover how much people love to believe in "cancer curing herbal medicine".
My father once suggested a toxic plant is great for health.
It sucks when a hobby you like is full of weirdos. I've been looking into both solar panels and getting rid of a lot of my lawn but SEVERAL times I've been watching a video and the host drops something about homeschooling or religion. I just wanted tips on growing potatoes, man.
RIP, same. I've sometimes dreamed about having some big-ass pretty garden and getting fruits and veggies from it, so my mom and I like to watch cool shit like people's giant greenhouse homes. And then you'll hear some tradwife and homeschooling shit in there and just get sad.
Yeah. And it seems like there's a big overlap between houseplant enthusiasts and the same "herbal remedy" folks you're familiar with, too
Hit me up if you want panel tips, it's kinda my thing
Honestly, I’d recommend talking to a landscape designer. If you find a good one, they can help you sort all that out, and at least all the ones I know are plant nerds first and foremost, and so aren’t too impressed with the tradwife performance gardening nonsense.
I don't know what the plant was, but both of those can be true (though be careful). "The dose makes the poison." Everything is poison in large enough quantities. A lot of toxic things can be very beneficial in smaller doses.
People with harmless hobbies? I see no problem with this. Why would a self-respecting adult care if others cringe at their interests?
This was such an online reply.
I'm saying it's weird that wirchcraft is "culturally acceptable" while the other extremely similar "hobbies" draw widespread derision.
I think you said more than that. You said people would "rightfully" make fun of you, suggesting the derision is warranted.
But I don't expect them to care. It's not like I'm making fun of them to their faces, I'm just thinking "wow what a dork" when I see an adult obsessed with Disney movies
Pick your poison, witchcraft, zen, Christianity... Being able to see things the way a child sees them is an essential part and something you might want to work on.
I'm going to take a guess and direct you (and most readers) towards a Christian reading, but I assure you, this observation is made by almost all traditions, secular or otherwise, across almost all the world's cultures.
(Edited for block quote)
i would add the following wisdom as well -
Critics who treat 'adult' as a term of approval, instead of as a merely descriptive term, cannot be adult themselves. To be concerned about being grown up, to admire the grown up because it is grown up, to blush at the suspicion of being childish; these things are the marks of childhood and adolescence. And in childhood and adolescence they are, in moderation, healthy symptoms. Young things ought to want to grow. But to carry on into middle life or even into early manhood this concern about being adult is a mark of really arrested development. When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty I read them openly. When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up. C.S. Lewis
I’m not sure coming into a witchy community and shitting on witchcraft is going to get you a ton of agreement
Just like how when you insult a waifus in a weeb community it wouldn't get you much agreement.
Shame that people feel they can't critique something they find silly for fear of sounding misogynistic. I don't think that's the kind of equality anyone should want.
There are very dramatically different conceptions of "magic" depending on who youre asking.
Many of them are less focused on conjuring things from the ether or casting curses and are much more interested in the Crowley-interpretation ("the science and art of causing change to occur in conformity with will"), which, as the man himself insisted in his later life, is only magical in the sense that all sciences are basically magic before they are cleaned up and get a proper light shown on them, effectively transmuting them into legitimate scientific pursuits.
It's less about summoning chi and moving things with your mind, and more about using your mind as a means of intentional interface, rather than for the default of passive experience. It is essentially a combination of performance art, psychology, philosophy, and the general understanding (as well as the functional application of that knowledge) of both yourself and the world(s) we are all subject to. Magic, as it is commonly defined now, is taking an idea and finding the best way to take that intangible, barely real spark and turn it into whatever new thing you'd like to turn it into. Within reason ofc.
Just something to think about: the next time you have a difficult task in front of you, 'gather your chi'. Do the breathing, feel your chakras spinning up, visualize that white light flowing through your body. Direct your 'chi' towards the task, then open your eyes and go. See how you feel about what you did by the task's end. Even better if the same task comes up and you don't do this so you can compare notes.
This is kind of the level this stuff works on for sane esoteric practitoners. Are you actually conjuring up something mythical? No, not really - you're psyching yourself up and/or shifting your focus using a psychological tool/metaphor. I personally find it hard to judge that too harshly - save that for folks doing the same thing for health problems without also doing evidence-based treatments.
That said, you're entitled to your opinion. Just be kind to folks you think are dorks if they aren't otherwise causing harm.
Eh, the mind is a complicated thing. You have the conscious part, which experiences things and makes active decisions, and the subconscious part, which processes raw sensory data into categories that the conscious part can engage with. When you get a new car, suddenly you see the same make and model more than you did before. That's just the result of your subconscious assigning significance to that make and model.
Magick, properly practiced, is just a system of rituals and correlations to influence what the subconscious assigns significance to. Even things like visualizing your chi can help you move with focus and intention.
It's all just about moderation. People can atribute their mistakes to holoscope so that they won't dwell on it and move on, but to use it to deflect legitimate blame would be toxic.
I say this not because your mention sounds misogynistic but as if using societal acceptance as a bar to judge someone's hobby or ritual (religious or non-religious sense, not limited to witchcraft stuff).
Try to think about it in terms of historical psychological therapy, tarot cards are a metaphor engine, like a Rorschach test, spells are CBT, and on and on, the themes are repeated. I'm misandrist, so IDGAF, pretty freeing, but I'd say those who stick with their childhood perspectives in adult life are either really cool or dreadfully boring. This opinion seems the latter, might want to look to that...